The Lipscomb University Men’s and Women’s Track & Field teams battled strong gusty winds and a lightning storm that cut the meet short, but still picked up three event wins at the Savannah State University Eyeopener meet in Savannah, Ga.

The meet was the first of the outdoor season for the Bisons and Lady Bisons. Both teams didn’t miss a step on the transition from indoor track to outdoor.

Caitlin Anderson picked up the first win of the day in the Women’s 3000m Steeplechase with a time of 12:03.65. It was also a new all-time PR for Caitlin, who earned All-A-Sun Conference honors in the steeplechase last year as a freshman.

Not to be outdone, freshman Nathan Brame scored the first win for the men in the Men’s 3000m Steeplechase with a time of 9:59.02 in his first ever 3-K Steeple race. It was also the first overall event win of the year for Brame. Sophomore Jonathan Williams finished third in the Steeple with a time of 10:07.90.

“It set a great tone for the day to get wins in the first two events of the meet,” said coach Bill Taylor. “We had a really great day with highly competitive performances and marks despite some nasty homestretch headwinds. Every week we seem to get stronger and stronger…it’s very exciting!”

Five more Lipscomb men competed in the 3000-meter Steeplechase, four of which had never run a steeple race before. Tyler Youngs finished 5th in 10:26.45, Jeff Hoover 6th in 10:29.37, Hunter Hethcoat 9th in 10:41.33, Paul Wright 10th in 10:44.24, and Ben Fennell 14th in 11:00.44.

Lipscomb also picked up another overall event win in the Women’s 1500m. Jenny Randolph ran a great tactical race in the wind to earn yet another victory for herself this season. Her time of 4:55.42 is a 1500m PR despite the weather conditions. Carolyn Latham finished 5th with a PR of 5:03.27, Louisa Van Batavia finished 7th with a PR of 5:07.57, Shannon Shoemake was 9th in 5:10.98, Laura Stewart 10th 5:13.24, Meagan Hoar 11th 5:16.92 and Catherine Beals 13th in 5:20.65.

“Our fastest 1500m women’s time last year was 5:04 for the whole season,” said Taylor. “ In the first meet of the year, in strong winds, we already have two women faster than that and several more close. The progress we are making is incredible in this amount of time!”

Lipscomb also posted several second and third place overall finishes. Laura Stewart finished second overall in the women’s 800m in a time of 2:28.99. Ryan Chastain finished second in the men’s 800m in a time of 1:58.64, while Nathan Brame doubled back from his 3000m Steeplechase to finish third in the men’s 800m with a new PR of 1:59.87.

The throwers also made their mark on this meet with a pair of third place finishes. Alex Jerkins threw a new PR in the shot put with a throw of 45 feet 4.5 inches with the 16 lb. implement, and Austin Ray heaved the college javelin 143 feet 2 inches.

“This was a fun meet in that I dropped most of our athletes down,” said Taylor. “Our 5000m runners did the 1500 and the 800, our 800m runners did the 400 and were supposed to do the 200m (cancelled due to Lightning storms), our 400 runners did the 100m. We got a lot out of this meet.

“As I said, this was a great opening outdoor season meet for us. I was impressed that nobody worried about the gusting winds. Our athletes just went out, did their best, and left it at that. We had many PR’s and high finishes. It’s just so nice to see this kind of progress with our program. This year and the next few years are going to be very special as we keep raising the bar in everything we do.”